Paper Panzers

Michael Ashford-Smith recently sent some photos of his project, repurposing some of our 15mm SF vehicles as German ‘Paper Panzers’ – a bit of speculation on the idea of German post-WW2 hovertanks. Sounds a bit odd, but please stick with us here…

We think the result is absolutely excellent, and with his permission we’ve posted some photos, using Michael’s own words to describe the project:

I ordered some of your great models some time ago, to be used as ‘Paper Panzers’ for various projects.

For the last few weeks I have been working on a project, which was just meant to be a practice diorama to try out water effects – seen on YouTube – using very cheap clear bathroom silicone and various plastic cutlery!

However it grew arms and legs and I was so please with it all I entered it at this year’s IMPS Scale Modelworld, Telford which I attended with my club IPMS Edinburgh. Have never entered anything there before, and was amazed and chuffed that it won a Bronze medal in the Misc Dioramas category.

It’s called Kreuzberg (Landwehrkanal) 1952, fictitious of course, and along with your Magnus and Wizard, it also features two boats from TheScene UK and Plastic Soldier Company vehicles and soldiers/ crews plus a Skytrex Kubelwagen.

Here’s the link to the YouTube videos for the water effects, there are 2 parts.

As the scale for mine was smaller, I just scaled down the type of tools – to smooth down the first layer I used one of those little ice-cream spoons (flat & square) but a bit of flat plastic would do. For the rough waves & wakes I used a rounded button stuck to a plastic tube as a handle. To get the finer edges or around the wooden posts I used a cocktail stick. I did a few test bits on cardboard to get the hang of it. Rather than use the silicone ‘gun’ nozzle I squirted it into a plastic container.

Thin coats only! The base surface was amazingly easy, I used kids poster paint from The Works, a scrubbed mix of greens, brown, blue & black bits for depth. White paint just below the boats’ bow waves or rough water. The silicone dries quite quickly so you can do the waves after a few mins. I thought the top surface was a bit matt, so gave it a coat of enamel yacht varnish (Vallejo gloss varnish or Johnstons Klear won’t stay on!) The varnish left a slight yellow/brown tinge which was fine.The project took a few weeks but was great fun.

All very cheap – a few quid for the silicone & ‘gun’, Slaters embossed plastic for the dockside road, and second hand bits of a railway farm building broken up for the building fronts. Concrete flood barrier/bunker thing was balsa wood & PVA/ sand mix for rough surface.

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